thresher

[ thresh-er ]

noun

a person or thing that threshes.
Also thrasher. Also called thresher shark . a large shark of the genus Alopias, especially A. vulpinus, which threshes the water with its long tail to drive together the small fish on which it feeds.

Origin of thresher

First recorded in 1350–1400, thresher is from the Middle English word thressher.See thresh, -er¹

Words Nearby thresher

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use thresher in a sentence

Farmers in the region were using a laborious process to separate plants’ seeds from their stems by hand, and Corrales helped them build a bike-powered thresher so that they could process crops such as maize and beans more quickly.
The power of simple innovations | Saima May Sidik, SM ’21 | October 27, 2021 | MIT Technology Review
Almost every “fact” is wrung through an ideological thresher and pulverized.
A Response to David Mamet on Gun Control | Michael Tomasky | January 28, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
After Mr. thresher's ministry closed amongst them, Mr. Woodward became the pastor.
Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire | Thomas Coleman
Great care must be taken with this part of the thresher, or a great deal of grain will be carried into the straw.
Farm Engines and How to Run Them | James H. Stephenson
Men began spewing out of the brawl like straw from a thresher as the old man grabbed arms, legs, or whatever was handy.
Police Your Planet | Lester del Rey

Combined harvester and thresher—Matteson, United States, 1886.
The Story of Great Inventions | Elmer Ellsworth Burns
The sheds and the reaper and binder and thresher went just after, and the orchards and fences as well.
Australian Pictures | Howard Willoughby

British Dictionary definitions for thresher

thresher

/ (ˈθrɛʃə) /

noun

a person who threshes
short for threshing machine

Also called: thrasher, thresher shark any of various large sharks of the genus Alopias, esp A. vulpinus, occurring in tropical and temperate seas: family Alopiidae. They have a very long whiplike tail with which they are thought to round up the small fish on which they feed

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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